A storable seat apparatus for a vehicle is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2006-264582 (hereinafter referred to as the prior art document).
In the prior art document, a seat mounting surface and a storage recess positioned behind the seat mounting surface are formed on a floor surface in a vehicle. A pair of left and right front links and a pair of left and right rear links are rotatably connected at their lower ends to the floor surface via hinge mechanisms, and a seat cushion of the seat is rotatably connected to the upper ends of the pair of left and right front links and the pair of left and right rear links via hinge mechanisms. In addition, the front links and the rear links are connected via cables to make the rotating operations thereof link with each other, and an electric motor for rotationally driving the rear links is mounted to the seat cushion.
Accordingly, if the electric motor is actuated with the seat in the storage position (stored position), in which the seat is positioned in the storage recess, the front links and the rear links rotate by the driving force of the electric motor. Thereupon, the seat rotationally moves to the operating position, in which the seat is placed on the seat mounting surface, in accordance with a rotating path defined by the four links. Additionally, if the electric motor is driven reversely with the seat in the operating position, the seat rotationally moves to the storage position in accordance with the rotating path that is determined by the four links.